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Monday, December 24, 2012

Natural Perfection ... Pristine Rigpa….Shenlha Okar

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Dzogchen Explorations

Okar Research

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Tapihritsa...https://www.ligminchalearning.com/curriculum/dzogchen

"According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen (Rdzogs chen) is the natural, primordial state or natural condition, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by adherents of other Tibetan Buddhist sects. According to Dzogchen literature, Dzogchen is the highest and most definitive path to enlightenment....."

Kongtrul, Jamgon (Lodro Taye)..."Myriad Worlds: Buddhist Cosmology in Abhidharma, Kalachakra, and Dzog-chen"...(1995)

"Longchen Rabjampa, Drimé Özer (Wylie: Klong-chen rab-'byams-pa, Dri-med 'od-zer) "Longchenpa" (1308–1364) was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a critical link in the exoteric and esoteric transmission of the Dzogchen teachings. He was abbot of Samye, one of Tibet's most important monasteries and the first Buddhist monastery established in the Himalaya, but spent most of his life travelling or in retreat.....he is sometimes referred to by the honorary title "Second Buddha" (Tib. rgyal ba gnyis).....Longchenpa attracted more and more students, even though he had spent nearly all of his life in mountain caves. During a stay in Bhutan (Tib., Mon), Longchenpa fathered a daughter and a son....".

Lha Chen Shen Lha Woe Kar: the aspect of compassion of the universe....http://sardza.linuxpl.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ShenlaOdkar.jpg

"Longchenpa combined the teachings of the Vima Nyingtig lineage with those of the Khandro Nyingtig, thus preparing the ground for the fully unified system of teachings that became known as the Longchen Nyingthig (by Jigme Lingpa)....Dowman, Keith, Old Man Basking In the Sun: Longchenpa's Treasury of Natural Perfection, Vajra Publications, 2006.....He was the author of over 200 works, of which only about twenty-five survive...."

Notes From "Natural Perfection, Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen" ....Translation and Commentary by Keith Dowman...Published in 2010 (Wisdom Publications Boston)

"The actual essence, pristine rigpa,
cannot be improved on, so virtue is profitless,
and it cannot be impaired, so vice is harmless;
on its absence of karma there is no ripening of pleasure or pain;
in its absence of judgement, no preference for samsara or nirvana;
in its absence of articulation, it has no dimension;
in its absence of past and future, rebirth is an empty notion:
who is there to transmigrate? and how to wander?
what is karma and how can it mature?
Contemplate the reality that is like the clear sky!"
(Page 23)

"Purity of karma, putative rebirth, degree of meditation-concentration, facility in visualization, levels of attainment, and so on, are all issues pertinent to acceptance and success within a hierarchical cult....but to the formless experience of Dzogchen, such considerations have no relevance...any kind of preparation or fore-practice muddies the waters..."....(p. 7)

"It is an error of interpretation, however, to believe that Dzogchen requires rejection of religious devotions or ritual practice. The sacred and the profane have the same weight in the Dzogchen view, and the temple or church and the beer-hall or gymnasium are equal.....no Buddhist conditioning, ritual worship, or lifestyle, nor Christian or Jewish devotions, provides any more or less fertile ground for recognition of the nature of mind than the lifestyle of an agnostic professional or a self-indulgent hedonist...."(p. 7-8)

"Enchanted by the play of illusion, children who do not know their own minds, are bewitched. They take the show to be real and become attached to it, enwrapped in their own imagination. Old people, on the other hand, who know the story, cannot get caught by such fascination. Likewise fools who never question the validity of their experience and impute identity to those vividly appearing, enchanting, empty images, take the show to be real and restrict themselves to cyclical patterns of transmigration. Ati-yogins and yoginis, however, understanding that everything is unreal, are aware of the ZING of reality (de bzhin nyid), and their minds are released into the nameless matrix that is beyond both bondage and liberation." ...Page 89.....

Kongtrul...."Retreat Manual"...trans: Zangpo....

"The Dzogchen practitioner is such insofar as he or she is free of spiritual identity or belief in any dogma. This natural freedom is intrinsic to doing nothing and allowing moment by moment autonomous deconstruction of his or her identity, both personal and spiritual.....Ordinary people, non-Buddhists, and Buddhist followers of the eight lower approaches (monastic, solitary ascetic, altruistic householders, tantric practitioners, atheists, hedonists and monotheistic eternalists....)....are identical in that they do not realize natural perfection.....In this important sense, every path is a dead end..."p.94

From "Natural Perfection, Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen" ........Translation and Commentary by Keith Dowman...Published in 2010 (Wisdom Publications Boston)

"Tulku Tsullo, a student of Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa, describes it in the following way: The ‘empty essence’ is primordial purity. It refers to the empty aspect of the wisdom of empty clear light, the universal monarch who creates all samsara and nirvana, free from the very beginning and uncompounded. If we explain this further, just as ka is the ‘original’ or the very first of the thirty Tibetan consonants, the wisdom of clear light has always been ‘pure’ (dag) from its very origin or primordial beginning.".....http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Primordial_purity

Karmay, Samten..."The Great Perfection"... 1988

Tulku Thondup..."The Practice of Dzogchen"...(Snow Lion:1996)
Norbu..."Dzogchen: The Self Perfected State"....1996

There are three requirements before a student may begin a practice:
1. the empowerment (Tibetan: wang)
2. a reading of the text by an authorized holder of the practice (Tibetan: lung)
3. instruction on how to perform the practice or rituals (Tibetan: tri).
An individual is not allowed to engage in a deity practice without the empowerment for that practice. The details of an empowerment ritual are often kept secret as are the specific rituals involved in the deity practice.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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